India's domestic air traffic grew over 16 per cent last month as airlines of the Asia-Pacific market recorded the "strongest performance" in international travel compared to September last year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in Thursday.

India's domestic traffic rose 16.4 per cent in September following the strong August growth 18.5, global airlines' body said in its latest analysis of air traffic trends worldwide.

"The improvement over recent months is inconsistent with continued weakness in the economy and could be reflecting fare discounting. The year-to-date growth at four per cent is a significant improvement on 2012, when the market contracted 2.1 per cent," it said.

While the capacity released in the aviation market by Indian carriers rose 5.7 per cent, it pushed up load factor 6.6 percentage points to 71.5 per cent.

The second highest hike in demand was in Russia which climbed 12.1 per cent compared to September 2012, despite indicators showing a slowdown in economic activity, while China's domestic traffic grew 10.6 per cent compared to the year ago, confirming the robust trend in air travel.

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